Community

Tribal Members

Swinomish Indian Tribal Community is composed of approximately 900 tribal members with the majority of members residing on the Swinomish Reservation or nearby in Skagit County. Most tribal members reside in the Swinomish Village area located on the southeast corner of the Reservation near the tribal offices.

Welcome Swinomish members, friends and neighbors, to the website of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. As Chairman of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, I invite you to explore this site to learn more about our Tribe and Community. Through these Community pages, we hope to keep our members, friends and neighbors informed of the news and events going on within our Community.

The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community is not a big tribe, nor is our community a large community, but our people have the same needs, hopes and dreams as all communities throughout the world. We want our families and our homes to be healthy. We want high-quality education for our children and loving care for our elders. We want safe neighborhoods and a clean environment. We want to preserve our traditions, culture, foods, dances, crafts; in essence, our way of life. As a community, we work together to sustain these values and further our hopes and dreams for generations to come.

We often say to our friends, Swinomish always has been and always will be a fishing tribe. Salmon is at the heart of the Swinomish cultural and ceremonial life. The ceremonial and subsistence harvests by tribal fishers support a thriving cultural life, sustains the elders and nurtures each new generation of our children.

As the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, we approach our self-governance with one fundamental question in mind: How will our decisions affect the next seven generations? We make decisions based on our belief that "we are as permanent as the soil" and "our grandparents' blood rights and our children's sovereignty are found in our lands, waters and resources". The decisions we make and actions we take uphold our way of life.

If you have any questions about the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community that are not answered on this website, I invite you to contact our staff for more information. I thank you for your interest in the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, and I thank our Creator for all the blessings bestowed upon each and every one of us.